Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to monitor how effectively (a) sustainability and transformation partnerships, (b) integrated care systems, (c) clinical commissioning groups and (d) local authorities are supporting children's palliative care in accordance with their legal duties.

Sustainability and transformation partnerships and integrated care systems are made up of bodies including local authorities and clinical commissioning groups, which retain statutory responsibility for providing health and care services for the populations they serve. These include a range of services involved in children’s palliative care.

NHS England and the Department would expect all of these partners to be regularly talking to, and working with, relevant organisations given their remit to identify overall local need and to join up services.

NHS England is also working with commissioners, clinicians, voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations and people with lived experience to refresh the children’s palliative and end of life care service specification and the commissioning pathway, to reflect collective responsibilities across health and social care. Work will continue on this until spring 2019. NHS England is also making available guidance across the sector to support good practice, including sharing examples.